Standing on a brick sidewalk, I gripped the bag of takeout, already salivating at the thought of chicken vindaloo and Peshwari naan. Royal Bistro made the naan deliciously buttery and the curry so hot, it made me break out in a euphoric sweat.
Since it was my birthday, the manager had let me leave the bar early. I didn’t have big plans. After a few hours of mixing drinks for the Friday-night finance crowd, I just wanted to stuff my face and watch comedies with Andrew.
As I walked along the path to our home, I breathed in the scent of chili powder, cumin, and garlic emanating from the paper bag under my arm. It was the first thing we’d bonded over when friends had introduced us—a lust for the hottest food possible.
With a rumbling stomach, I slid my key into the lock and stepped into his home.
My ears perked up at the sounds coming from upstairs. Andrew was clearly blaring some dirty videos, judging from the impossibly loud moaning and gasping—the really fake, high-pitched kind targeted at men. Women would catch the artifice right away.
Interesting. Well, he thought he had a few hours till I got home. Let him watch whatever porn he wanted. But why would he be playing it at that volume when the condo walls were paper thin?
I slipped out of my shoes. As I crossed into the kitchen, I slammed my toe into a sharp wooden chair leg and shouted, “Ow,” irrationally irritated at the chair for existing. Scowling, I pulled the vindaloo from the bag. At that moment, I realized the porn had stopped. Andrew was embarrassed to be caught. I quirked a smile at the thought. Surely he must know I didn’t care?
“Hello?” Andrew’s voice came from upstairs. There was a panicked sound to it. I turned when he said more quietly, “I don’t think it’s anything.”
My breath caught. Was he talking to someone else?
Now, my heart was hammering. Hardly aware of the hot tub of curry in my hand, I tiptoed up the stairs. The high-pitched orgasm started up again, the mattress squeaking.
Dread gripped my heart. I reached the bedroom and found the door slightly cracked.
Very carefully, I pushed it open.
My stomach clenched so hard, I nearly vomited.
Andrew was lying in the middle of the bed, his limbs intimately entwined with those of a blonde woman I’d never seen before. I must have screamed or shouted because they almost fell off the bed as they spun to face me. For a long moment, we all stared at each other, gripped by horror.
“Ava, what are you doing here?” Andrew’s face had turned bright red.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
“You’re supposed to be at work.” He was lying beneath a naked woman, but he said that like it was a perfectly reasonable explanation.
“It’s my birthday. And they let me off early.”
Andrew pushed the woman off him, and they sprawled across the bed, our bed, sweaty and flushed. I stared, almost unable to believe what I was seeing, but aware that it was my future disintegrating before my eyes.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you…” He swallowed hard. “I didn’t want it to happen like this. It’s just that Ashley and I fell in love.”
“No offense,” added Ashley, pulling a sheet over herself. “But he’s done experimenting. He wants a family. A normal family? Like…a human family.”
Andrew swallowed hard, his whole body rigid with tension. “Ashley and I…we just have things in common, Ava. We have a future.”
I couldn’t breathe. How had I not seen this coming? My thoughts went silent, and there was only the feeling of my heart splitting open.
I hurled the vindaloo at him, and the plastic container hit the bedspread and instantly exploded. Piping hot chicken and chilies sprayed all over them. Andrew and the girl screamed, and I wondered if I’d done something illegal. Could you be arrested for throwing hot curry at someone?
“What are you doing?” shouted Andrew.
“I don’t know! What are you doing?” I screamed back at him.
My gaze roamed over the room, taking in the laundry bin where our clothes lay mingled together. For some reason, the thought of separating my laundry from his was more depressing than anything else. I always did the laundry and neatly folded it for him…would I be pulling my clothes out of the hamper and doing them at a laundromat?
Holy shit, where was I going to live now?
Andrew was wiping off the curry with the sheet. “You said I had a hall pass when I went on vacation. And the more Ashley and I got to know each other, the more I realized it was meant to be.”
“A hall pass?” I stared at him, the two of them hazy through the tears in my eyes. “I said I knew what a hall pass was. I didn’t say you had one. And you’re not on vacation.”
“I met Ashley on vacation. And I couldn’t help it. Her beauty called to me.”
I blinked and felt a tear running down my cheek. “The last time you went on vacation was nearly three years ago.”
Andrew shook his head. “No, Ava. You and I went to Costa Rica last winter, and you stayed in the room the whole time with a UTI. Remember?”
“You met her when we were on vacation?”
Andrew swallowed again. “Well, you weren’t exactly the most fun on that trip.”
Next to him, Ashley was frantically trying to wipe the hot curry off herself with one of my towels. “This is really irritating my skin.”
Andrew blinked at me with puppy dog eyes. “Ava. I’m sorry. Obviously, this is just a miscommunication. I never meant to hurt you. But the heart wants what it wants.”
My throat felt tight, my chest aching. “What is wrong with you?”
“I-I was going to tell you…” he stammered. “We fell in love. And love is beautiful, isn’t it? Love should always be celebrated. Honestly, Ava, you should be happy for me. I’ve found my soulmate.” He sighed dramatically. “Can you stop being selfish for a minute and think about this from my perspective?”
The whole world was tilting on its axis. “You said I was your soulmate. I suppose you write her poetry, too?” I spun around and had crossed into the hall when it clicked in my head. “Was the poem about the poplar tree for her or me?”
“It was for me,” Ashley snapped.
A horrific thought struck me. This wasn’t just the end of my relationship. This was the end of my future plans. “Andrew, what about the bar? You were going to help finance it.”
He shrugged, giving me a little smile. “Oh, Ava. You’ll figure something out. Go to college or something. You’d be a brilliant student.”
Panicked thoughts tumbled wildly through my mind like autumn leaves in a storm. I’d made Andrew my whole life, and now it was gone.
Tears stung my eyes. “You were waiting until you graduated, weren’t you?” I said. “Because Ashley’s not paying your bills. I was.”
She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “I’m an actress. It takes time to build a career.”
“And talent. And considering how fake that orgasm sounded, I don’t have a lot of hope for you,” I retorted.
Ashley yanked the vindaloo off the bed and threw it at me. Red curry splattered over my shirt.
I was already the bitter woman. The spurned. The wicked witch plotting to take down the young beauty.
“Get out!” she yelled.
“He’s all yours!” I shouted back. “You two really do seem perfectly matched.”
I had to leave before I did something that put me in jail for twenty years. I snatched my gym bag off the floor and bounded down the stairs.
And there it was—the moment I decided I would never love again.
Fairy tales? They weren’t real.
